As a leading research library we have resources of enormous breadth, depth and substance, and also great complexity.

In our online connected world there is an unprecedented amount of information available but we are also increasingly assailed by unreliable, shallow and unsubstantiated material.

Our Library has developed a wide range of online research guides to assist our patrons unravel the complexity and cut through the online white noise in order to access the best information for your interests and research tasks.

The guides can be found on Google, Trove, our catalogue and our website.

Popular guides

Topics range from frequent research tasks, to tasks and interests that are regular but not frequent. They make complex subjects and collections more easily accessible, navigable and useable. While we focus on our areas of strength, the resources featured include the best available information, wherever that is located.

The guides have been extremely popular, and this year we have had in excess of 850,000 hits.

Our top five guides are:

Court cases in Australia – Locate relevant law reports, judgments, newspaper articles, police records and commentaries. The guide also identifies material that might be restricted due to privacy and confidentiality concerns

What it used to cost – Research the historic changes to our cost of living – wages; groceries; houses and more